tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post1841874980624067987..comments2017-09-26T14:48:35.949-05:00Comments on The We Tree Genealogy Blog: When Bad Ancestors Happen to Good PeopleAmy Coffin, MLIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00612044786240692282noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-29662198986151343152014-07-14T21:46:28.326-05:002014-07-14T21:46:28.326-05:00Thank you for this blog post. I first read it bac...Thank you for this blog post. I first read it back in November and just re-read it and all the comments to help me make a decision on how to handle my black sheep in a small book I am putting together for siblings and cousins. One story in particular I am thinking about just adding in an addendum in the back of the book because I don&#39;t have documented proof, but a LOT of circumstantial evidence. Mostly I want to document it so it doesn&#39;t get lost when I&#39;m gone.Linda Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14518753627144366908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-59859413931644820902013-12-01T11:00:08.675-06:002013-12-01T11:00:08.675-06:00Your aunt is a wise woman.Your aunt is a wise woman.Kerry Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03939381204186890096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-59816736893268420902013-11-27T14:41:50.594-06:002013-11-27T14:41:50.594-06:00I found a great-uncle (who had never been mentione...I found a great-uncle (who had never been mentioned...I was told all of the males in the family died in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic) had murdered his wife with an ax in 1934. My uncle was not please that I found out this information, and it was obvious he was aware of the crime. My father was also aware, but was told a very different story than I have since uncovered in the many newspaper, court, and prison documents. The point of this story is that my relatives have all reacted differently. I was excited for the find, my uncle was angry that I found this out and told the other relatives, others relatives were indifferent. My aunt said it best...keeping secrets is what allows bad people to get way with crimes (she is a staunch Catholic, and was referring to sexual abuse done by Catholic some priests).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-71725391830600050992013-11-18T18:17:30.106-06:002013-11-18T18:17:30.106-06:00Do we have an ancestor in common? Laura Ann McCaul...Do we have an ancestor in common? Laura Ann McCauley Bailey Holycross b. 1801 was married to William Scott Bailey and after he died to Spencer Holycross. Ohio. Moody.Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13256855136448978468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-71907477126530061092013-11-18T06:11:31.300-06:002013-11-18T06:11:31.300-06:00I discovered that my 3rd gr-grandmother was born o...I discovered that my 3rd gr-grandmother was born of wedlock. The elderly woman who gave me this info - with proof - went out of her way to tell me that both birth families were upstanding, etc. When I shared this info with the living relative who had been instrumental in starting me on my maternal side, she informed me that this was impossible and she should know as she took care of the graves!? So they spoke? She has absolutely refused to acknowledge my existence!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-61611821798186827162013-11-17T10:21:12.716-06:002013-11-17T10:21:12.716-06:00Hi Amy,
Thank you for taking the plunge and tac...Hi Amy,<br /><br /> Thank you for taking the plunge and tackling this subject! My &#39;black sheep&#39; are grandparents, grand nieces and uncles, and great grandparents with mental illnesses and suicides. I&#39;m trying to figure out how to present it, if it should be presented. All the living descendents from that side of the family, didn&#39;t know most of these ancestors, so I don&#39;t have the issues who had to deal with. <br /><br />Any suggestions? :)<br /><br />Laura in WV<br /><br />Anyway, you&#39;ve given me a lot to think about..<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-28671422641595784802013-11-14T14:46:57.074-06:002013-11-14T14:46:57.074-06:00I think the handling of these stories depends on t...I think the handling of these stories depends on the nature of the crime, and on the dynamics of your (living) family. Bootlegging is easier to swallow (or even get excited about) than rape, child molestation, and other crimes with human victims (who may still be living). <br /><br />I have living family members who violently object to any sort of genealogical research (let alone revelations of bad behavior). It definitely limits my blogging range; I rarely mention specific ancestors, and when I do, they aren&#39;t necessarily my own ancestors. It&#39;s a bummer. Kerry Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03939381204186890096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-88863320185332780902013-11-14T13:19:56.650-06:002013-11-14T13:19:56.650-06:00So what indeed, anonymous commenter who doesn&#39;...So what indeed, anonymous commenter who doesn&#39;t have the guts to use your real name. So what indeed. Thanks for reading!Amy Coffin, MLIShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00612044786240692282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-58169757203627307602013-11-14T11:52:37.634-06:002013-11-14T11:52:37.634-06:00So what?So what?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-46271186532893691922013-11-14T09:43:48.133-06:002013-11-14T09:43:48.133-06:00When I was a child my parents told only good thing...When I was a child my parents told only good things about my grandparents. Over the years, however, they let slip thinks about both my grandmothers that fully explains why on both sides the youngest siblings regarded one of their eldest siblings more as a mother than their own mother. <br />My point is that they may have known about the bad behavior of their father, but they didn&#39;t want to talk about it, were ashamed, or wanted to spare you the details. Joan Boshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01055926341623988772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-85254403973776070762013-11-13T21:07:57.694-06:002013-11-13T21:07:57.694-06:00Amy, great post. I understand your dilemma but al...Amy, great post. I understand your dilemma but also thank you for sharing such an interesting story. B. Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16295994004055894542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-64030560737098133852013-11-13T09:21:12.701-06:002013-11-13T09:21:12.701-06:00Great post. Those black sheep ancestors are usuall...Great post. Those black sheep ancestors are usually more interesting and often a vivid sign of the times. Thank you for sharing.Rita A.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00409173179296954621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-73717111399193038652013-11-13T04:54:09.607-06:002013-11-13T04:54:09.607-06:00Tread carefully, there are distant relatives out t...Tread carefully, there are distant relatives out there who really don&#39;t want the truth, they want every ancestor to be &#39;saintly&#39;. Recently, I made mention that a person in my family tree who is also in another person&#39;s family tree was illegitimate, and he obviously was, and this person became very angry over it. He was bound out as a child, and on his marriage license, his parents had different surnames and he went by his mother&#39;s surname. It was called an assumption.T J Davishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01174076455709314538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-69997581791868384132013-11-12T22:00:54.582-06:002013-11-12T22:00:54.582-06:00My grandfather&#39;s story has bootlegging, murder...My grandfather&#39;s story has bootlegging, murders (committed by his brother), trials, escapes from jail, a hanging, a prison escape, a name change that lead to a new life, wife and family (even though there was already a wife &amp; child) and more. It was news to the entire family when it all came together a few years ago. I&#39;ve agreed not to blog about it because one of his children (my aunt) is still living. It will really take a book to tell the story anyway. So I&#39;m working on getting all the documentation in order and have a rough book outline. Linda McCauleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08402203453403304529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-4536872812518580722013-11-12T19:15:52.358-06:002013-11-12T19:15:52.358-06:00Fascinating--I&#39;ve dealt with a similar (althou...Fascinating--I&#39;ve dealt with a similar (although lower-key) situation on my blog here a couple years ago: http://www.familytreerings.org/2011/06/happy-127th-birthday-henry-perkes.html<br />I feel that the stories need to be told, because my sister-in-law named her son after this guy without knowing much about him except that it was a name on the family tree she liked, and I worry that someday my nephew will find the truth out about his namesake ancestor and be a bit disappointed that he wasn&#39;t a wonderful example...Anita Wellshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16850757077329787576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-84830702969032989962013-11-12T17:32:37.693-06:002013-11-12T17:32:37.693-06:00Amy, we can&#39;t judge people from the past accor...Amy, we can&#39;t judge people from the past according to the mores of contemporary times. Thanks for your thoughtful post; I look forward to reading what you write about your black sheep.Jill Ballhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09074874999181040071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-26350048504777515532013-11-12T16:57:05.170-06:002013-11-12T16:57:05.170-06:00Josiah, thanks for sharing your experience here. Y...Josiah, thanks for sharing your experience here. You ask what I would do if chastised by a relative? I&#39;d soldier on. I don&#39;t discuss everything on my blog, but in this instance this is *my* ancestor, too, and I&#39;m going to explore the facts. I&#39;ve been told to stop before, but now I just share less with those folks.Amy Coffin, MLIShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00612044786240692282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-36039398305837182312013-11-12T16:55:25.621-06:002013-11-12T16:55:25.621-06:00I feel the way you do. I tell the stories of my a...I feel the way you do. I tell the stories of my ancestors, the shocking, the boring, and the absurd. They are ancestors, but they don&#39;t influence the living. Just like the many ministers in my tree don&#39;t make me an angel, or the Harvard graduates don&#39;t make me a smarter person. The black sheep ancestors are just interesting stories, and don&#39;t make the descendants an less honorable. Heather Wilkinson Rojohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17704949156266722016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-9805850160112654932013-11-12T16:49:36.723-06:002013-11-12T16:49:36.723-06:00Janice, thanks for sharing your experience. Right ...Janice, thanks for sharing your experience. Right now my plan is to fully research the 5 years&#39; worth of articles and everyone mentioned in them then write up my findings. If the final product is book-sized then I&#39;ll explore my options, but my intent is to just gather all the facts and organize them in an order that tells the story. I may message you if I get stuck on how to proceed.Amy Coffin, MLIShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00612044786240692282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-36481358899676543502013-11-12T16:33:09.252-06:002013-11-12T16:33:09.252-06:00Cheri, thanks for sharing your situation. I don&#3...Cheri, thanks for sharing your situation. I don&#39;t want to offend either, but I&#39;m not revealing any secrets. All this stuff was published in the 1920&#39;s. Someone might be upset that I&#39;m digging it back up again, but I&#39;m going to continue despite the risk.<br /><br />You can research your collateral black sheep without advertising it so freely. My intent is to focus more on the events and not mention my ancestor&#39;s name so much as there are living people with the same name. Luckily my guy had an alias, so I may refer to that.<br /><br />There has to be a way to do this. That&#39;s why I brought it up for discussion. :)Amy Coffin, MLIShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00612044786240692282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-6575823390095223022013-11-12T16:26:33.723-06:002013-11-12T16:26:33.723-06:00Thank you, Donna!Thank you, Donna!Amy Coffin, MLIShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00612044786240692282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-51910337556639943062013-11-12T16:25:14.510-06:002013-11-12T16:25:14.510-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.Josiah Schmidthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13494840396043596900noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-35949081105457798102013-11-12T16:17:50.044-06:002013-11-12T16:17:50.044-06:00Amy, I have a similar situation with the subject o...Amy, I have a similar situation with the subject of the book I am writing (see posts on my blog, Mississippi Memories, and on a Facebook page I have set up for the book, Tillman Branch, King of the Mississippi Bootleggers.) Although the individual about whom I am writing is a distant cousin, rather than a direct line ancestor, I share your concerns and wholeheartedly agree with your plan. The one thing that I have learned about the subject of my book is that he was perceived by his family, particularly his children and his close friends, as quite different from his public (and infamous) persona. As far as telling my relative&#39;s story is concerned, I decided in the beginning that presenting the facts and telling the truth is the best way to proceed. And my editor agrees.....after all, this is history, not fiction. So my plan is to present the information I have discovered, from both public and private sources, in a fair and balanced manner. If you would like to discuss this further, please message me. And I am already excited about reading about your great-grandfather!Janicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09457670091960461148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-58850570598337015712013-11-12T16:16:09.010-06:002013-11-12T16:16:09.010-06:00Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this subject. ... Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this subject. I am jealous that you have such an interesting ancestor to research! I do have some Black Sheep in my tree but they are collateral lines-at least so far. One is from my Step Grandfather&#39;s line. Since she isn&#39;t a direct line ancestor I am not sure how to proceed in writing about her. She owned a brothel and was murdered by a lover! Great stuff but I don&#39;t want to offend!Cheri Hudson Passeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02439902368387077263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849506599116665235.post-66158309740280602822013-11-12T16:03:08.834-06:002013-11-12T16:03:08.834-06:00Well reasoned and written Amy.Well reasoned and written Amy.Donna Petersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13010578509636276371noreply@blogger.com